"Have you seen enough? If you have seen enough, then come out!"
While Maka and the windbreaker wizard were still wandering around the black and white London, a figure appeared from outside the space.
There is no doubt that that is Haierbo - although he did not enter the space where Maka was, he seemed to be able to see with his own eyes what was happening inside, looking at the big book in the distance. clock direction.
And the next moment after that, all the Muggles who were sent to the dungeon of the Ministry of Magic by Maka began to undergo horrific mutations.
Obviously, if those Muggles only had individual problems, it could still be called "accidental". But if it happened almost at the same time, no one would believe it if no one was behind it.
…
"Currently, the ten underground floors where the dungeon is located have been completely isolated, but none of the Aurors sent there have returned..."
At this moment, in the conference room of the Ministry of Magic, Snape and Slughorn were listening to a report on the current situation.
Judging from the entire known history described in the report, the Muggle mutation that broke out in the dungeon was quite sudden. If Maka and Kingsley hadn't carefully planned the emergency response in advance, it might have been too late to say anything now.
"According to the instructions of the room director, two teams of team members were guarding and patrolling in the corridor outside the dungeon. Several therapists sent by St. Mungo's also happened to leave immediately after conducting routine inspections on those Muggles. out of the cell…”
"So, when the cell door was destroyed, only one group of team members who stayed behind died. Everyone else, including the therapist, is now confirmed to have survived."
After listening to the report from the Auror who was responsible for escorting the therapist, Snape thought about it and quickly asked:
"So? Do you have any more specific details about those Muggles?"
"Oh, Hankins knows better than me about this."
When the Auror saw him asking, he immediately turned around and gestured to the other Auror behind him.
"He is Tommy Hankins. He was the team member responsible for patrolling after the therapist's examination time this morning -" he introduced, "At that time, their team also left after we escorted the therapist away, only less than The third group that stayed at the end to buy us time left about ten minutes early.”
Speaking of this, the Auror couldn't help but pause for a moment.
They are Aurors, and for things like sacrifice in the line of duty, they are already mentally prepared when they become Aurors. However, it is still sad that a colleague died trying to ensure that his two teams completed their mission.
However, they are aware after all. After a small pause, he said with a straight face:
"In addition, Hankins' team is also the team responsible for activating the multiple protection spells. They completed the task of emergency isolation of the ten underground floors."
"On behalf of the Ministry of Magic, I would like to thank you again for your efforts." Scrimgeour nodded sincerely beside him.
Of course, Snape ignored Scrimgeour's words. After the Auror briefly stated the work of his colleague, his eyes turned to the Auror named Hankins.
"Hello, Mr. Snape."
Hankins took a step forward, his strong facial features revealing his perseverance.
"I did pay special attention to the state of Muggles at that time," he said seriously. "In fact, the first thing that made us aware of the abnormal changes was a kind of black air. The black air was close to the ground, coming from the cracks in the cell door. It spread out bit by bit - I think it's a bit similar to Voldemort's Black Death, but of course, I can't tell whether there is a specific difference."
"And not long after, the solid metal cell door was destroyed by some huge force, and the Muggles rushed out."
Snape nodded slightly and frowned:
"Like the Black Death Apostles, covered in black air?"
"No, that's not the case," Hankins shook his head. "The black energy disappeared quickly, and when those Muggles appeared, they were basically no different from ordinary people."
As he said this, he suddenly changed his mind and said:
"But more importantly, I think they should at least retain some wisdom - when the three groups stayed to block them, some of the Muggles obviously had the idea of trying to bypass them. If the colleagues of the three groups hadn't tried their best to block them, Maybe our second team won’t be able to complete the isolation task.”
The dungeons on the tenth floor of the Ministry of Magic and the Department of Mysteries on the nine floors underground have both existed since the Wizarding Council, the predecessor of the Ministry of Magic, and naturally include the multiple protective magics used for isolation today.
And this is the reason why McGonagall and Snape chose to wait and see.
But in fact, the only thing that can be used as a temporary basis is the isolation between the tenth and ninth floors underground.
After all, the Department of Mysteries on the ninth floor underground is too special. If those alienated Muggles break into that floor, the situation may really get out of hand.
After receiving the initial manifestations of the Muggle mutation, Snape immediately fell into thinking. Slughorn on the side saw that he didn't speak any more, so he took over the conversation.
"Minister Scrimgeour," the bald, fat old man finally stopped smiling like usual under the current emergency situation, "I remember that the Auror mentioned it just now, and then you sent people down to take a look. Pass?"
"Yes! Professor Slughorn."
Scrimgeour was naturally a student at Hogwarts. And for the former dean of Slytherin House in front of him, this former little snake still showed considerable respect.
"A total of four strikers and two Aurors were dispatched successively. They all went down through Apparition after temporarily lifting the anti-Apparition spell of the Ministry of Magic. Unfortunately, none of the six people could come back," he said , "After reaching the agreed line of sight for fifteen minutes, we waited for another five minutes or so, and finally had no choice but to turn on the anti-Apparition again and not risk letting more people go down."
"It seems that the situation down here is not optimistic!" Slughorn shook his head regretfully and said, "Minister Scrimgeour, I think your approach is correct, and there is no way to give up."
After that, the long conference table finally fell into silence, and no one knew what to do.
Finally, Scrimgeour suddenly said:
"I'm going to send a letter to the International Federation of Wizards right now—if nothing else, at least I need to get a response from there first."
From his words alone, we could tell that he had actually sent a letter long ago, and most of it was an act of asking for help when he sent someone to Hogwarts.
However, the federation has not responded yet.
…
Not to mention the silence from the Ministry of Magic, at this moment, Luna was accompanied by Flitwick to the street park where Maka disappeared.
It can be seen that the deep pit dug by Maka's own magic a few days ago has not been filled up. And everywhere around the park, Kingsley and his men also set Muggle-repelling spells to prevent Muggles who didn't know the reason from approaching this place that might still be dangerous.
"Miss Lovegood, be careful! Don't go too fast!"
The little Flitwick swung his short arms and legs and followed closely behind Luna.
Luna, on the other hand, didn't pay much attention to Professor Flitwick's shrill call. She seemed to be very curious about this place, running around and trying not to miss almost every inch of space.
Since Aberforth was not directly involved in Maka's disappearance and even heard the general situation from others, he did not bring Luna here last night.
No, in fact, Luna was just wandering around London by herself all night yesterday.
"Miss Lovegood, did you find anything?"
"Oh, um..." Luna bent over and looked at the bottom of the pit, but she answered the question completely, "Professor Flitwick, how deep do you think this pit is? If I jump down like this, will my legs fall off?" Cut it off?"
"Ouch!" Flitwick quickly held the wand steady and said sharply, "Don't jump, don't jump - let alone breaking your leg if you fall, who knows if there is magic arranged by Halbo down there? "
"Eh?" Luna straightened up immediately and said, "Will the magic arranged by Haierbo... be there?"
To be honest, a few days have passed, and even if there were any traces of magic left at that time, they have probably faded away by now. So although Luna checked very carefully, she still hadn't found anything until now.
And if there is any place in this small park that I haven't sensed yet, it is undoubtedly the seemingly deep vertical hole in front of me.
"Professor Flitwick, I want to go down and have a look."
"No, no, no, this is absolutely not possible!" Flitwick waved his hands and said, "Besides, Sirius and the others must not have missed checking this place. If there are any clues, they will definitely tell them."
"But have you really looked at other places besides the bottom here? As for the outside of the park, the possibility of finding Maka is definitely even lower..."
Before she finished speaking, she saw Luna pulling out her wand and waving it towards the ground. She immediately gathered part of the soil dug up by Maka and quickly transformed it into a bundle of strong ropes.
After wrapping the two ends of the rope around the nearby tree trunk and around her waist, Luna quickly jumped into the pit.
"Why!"
Flitwick wanted to stop Luna who was inexplicably reckless, but he didn't expect that the other party was much faster than he expected. Especially when he didn't expect that Luna would jump into it without any hesitation.
Fortunately, Flitwick's reflexes are quite good.
Caught off guard, he quickly chased to the edge of the pit with his two short legs, and the wand in his hand quickly threw a silent floating spell.